Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Acrobat/Reader - Synchronized Scrolling Two (Or More) PDF Documents

Update (11/01/2017): A FREE demo version of this tool is now available here.
It can be used to test it out, but it only contains the "Scroll Down" command.

Another New Feature:You can now easily align the viewing position of all the open files with the active one.New Feature: The tool can now scroll any number of open files, not just two, as requested.

Comparing PDF documents side by side is a common DTP task in Acrobat or Reader, but the problem is you can't scroll two documents at the same time, so keeping them aligned can be difficult and time consuming.
That is the reason I've developed this new script which allows you to keep your documents in perfect alignment while you review them.

You can select the scrolling offset (in points) and then scroll both documents up, down, to the left, to the right, or skip pages forwards or backwards, all in perfect sync.

The windows themselves can be arranged at whatever configuration you find most comfortable, and can even be placed on different monitors.

IMPORTANT: This script does not allow you to synchronize the scrolling of the files using the mouse or the keyboard arrows directly. It only works through the buttons that it adds to the interface of the application.

After installing the script, the new scrolling options are available under a new sub-menu under the Window menu, as well as under the Tools menu (or toolbar, for easy access):

(click to enlarge)

And after using the Scroll Down option, the documents have simultaneously scrolled and now look like this:

The scrolling plug-in allows two PDF windows to be synched, and an offset can be set, but we don't know if it can handle drift. If we have for example 2 documents, English and translation in French (translation results to be always longer than the source), as the English and French scroll, the English eventually starts moving ahead faster (because shorter); is it possible to update the offset while scrolling down, to keep the longer PDF in synch with the shorter one, or is this a feature you could add in the future?

To everyone who expressed an interest: I did some in depth testing and the script already does what was requested! You can scroll one file down or up and then click on of the sync scroll buttons and the offset you created between the files will be preserved.

You can use the new Align Files feature to get all files aligned exactly like the current file you're viewing.

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About This Site, and Me

Hi! Welcome to my website, dedicated to the various custom-made tools I've created, mostly for working with PDF files.
My name is Gilad D., and I'm a software developer, specializing in creating the perfect solution for your needs, to make your work easier and more efficient. I do everything from small scripts in PDF forms, to dynamic stamps, to scripts that split files and extract their content, to entire stand-alone applications that can process hundreds of files...

Many of the tools available here can be purchased directly by using the "Buy Now" button at the top of the post. Unless otherwise mentioned, all tools are compatible with the current version of the application for which they were created, including at least 3 prior versions, and will run on both Windows and Mac computers!

In case of any doubts or questions, I can always be contacted at try6767@gmail.com (I post in various forums under the nickname "try67").